Volunteers minister in neighborhood known for crime history

Children play games in the parking lot of Shelby’s Ramblewood Apartments. The community, now Parkside Villas, welcomes volunteers each Thursday and at other times for ministry programs. (Star file photo)

By Matthew Tessnear / mtessnear@shelbystar.com

Published: Friday, August 2, 2013 at 02:22 PM.

SHELBY – Pink and blue painted children’s handprints cover a wall in the three-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood formerly known as Ramblewood.

The apartment is bright, with white walls accompanied by rainbow-colored curtains in the bedrooms.

Signs near the kitchen read “Faith” and “Blessing.”

Those words symbolize the gifts a group of local volunteers are trying to bestow on the residents of the neighborhood, now Parkside Villas.

The neighborhood has been home to one in nine Shelby murders and one in every 100 service calls in the city in the past 15 years. In recent weeks, a fatal shooting and a home invasion returned the spotlight on crime in the neighborhood and efforts to make it a safer community.

In 2007 and 2008, Ramblewood critics lobbied to tear down the apartment complex following multiple violent crimes.

“It’s not the kind of place you need to tear down,” said Sherry Gibson, the local director for an international children’s ministry and a member of one several local churches helping minister in the neighborhood each week. “It’s a place you need to build up.”

SHELBY – Pink and blue painted children’s handprints cover a wall in the three-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood formerly known as Ramblewood.

The apartment is bright, with white walls accompanied by rainbow-colored curtains in the bedrooms.

Signs near the kitchen read “Faith” and “Blessing.”

Those words symbolize the gifts a group of local volunteers are trying to bestow on the residents of the neighborhood, now Parkside Villas.

The neighborhood has been home to one in nine Shelby murders and one in every 100 service calls in the city in the past 15 years. In recent weeks, a fatal shooting and a home invasion returned the spotlight on crime in the neighborhood and efforts to make it a safer community.

In 2007 and 2008, Ramblewood critics lobbied to tear down the apartment complex following multiple violent crimes.

“It’s not the kind of place you need to tear down,” said Sherry Gibson, the local director for an international children’s ministry and a member of one several local churches helping minister in the neighborhood each week. “It’s a place you need to build up.”

‘You need to do something’

About five years ago, Gibson read a series of Star stories on crime and ensuing cleanup efforts in Ramblewood.

She gazed at a Star photograph of a little boy sitting on a stoop in the neighborhood.

“God said, ‘there’s kids there, you need to do something,’” she told The Star in a recent interview.

Gibson connected with Bob Apple, other members of Christian Freedom Baptist Church in Kings Mountain and Putnam Baptist Church in Shelby to start a ministry program in Ramblewood.

She said other churches in surrounding parts of the community told volunteers they were crazy for trying to work in Ramblewood. Critics talked of drugs, weapons and other dangers.

But volunteers started knocking on doors, telling residents to come for a Bible study and food.

It started slow, with mostly children attending to listen to Bible lessons and sing songs, Apple said.

“They didn’t even know the words to the song ‘Jesus Loves Me,’” Gibson said.

Apple said it took two years to get more people to start attending and coming back.

The group now meets Thursday nights, with about 15 to 20 children and 10 adults attending regularly.

And it doesn’t end with Thursday nights.

‘The ulterior motive is love’

Arrie Edwards has lived in Ramblewood for about three months.

She’s now ministering to residents throughout the week.

“I’ve seen the seed of what (volunteers) have planted,” Edwards said. “If they didn’t have this ministry, this community wouldn’t have made it. It wouldn’t have made it without the love of Christ.”

Gibson and Apple said Edwards has made a major difference in the former Ramblewood neighborhood by connecting with the residents from the inside.

The effort is often about helping residents with simple needs, Gibson said.

“They just need someone to come along and help,” she said.

A 91-year-old woman needs help with food, and there are plans for a neighborhood food pantry.

Another woman needs her oxygen delivered, and Gibson said she checks on her regularly.